American Bar Association sues Trump administration over law firm sanctions
The American Bar Association sued the Trump administration Monday over the president’s sanctions on law firms, saying he was threatening the independence of lawyers and trying to intimidate them from challenging him in court.
“Never before has there been as urgent a need for the ABA to defend its members, their profession, and the rule of law itself,” the group’s lawsuit said.
President Donald Trump rattled the legal profession this year by issuing executive orders punishing some law firms and striking deals with others hoping to avoid similar penalties.
Four firms sued to challenge Trump’s orders. Judges have struck down three of the orders, calling them unconstitutional. A ruling in the fourth lawsuit, filed by the firm Susman Godfrey, is pending, though the judge hearing that case has temporarily blocked most of Trump’s punishments.
The ABA lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Trump’s actions against law firms “cast a deep chill over the legal profession.” The group asked a judge to declare his sanctions unconstitutional and block the administration from enforcing them against any ABA member or their firm.
“We’ve got a responsibility as the voice of the legal profession to make sure we have a legal system that’s fair and impartial and not under the control of any administration,” William R. Bay, the ABA’s president, said in an interview Monday.
Bay said the group was bringing its suit because the rulings for law firms that challenged Trump’s executive orders only cover those businesses. The ABA’s lawsuit, he said, “broadens it out” beyond those individual firms.
The Trump administration has also taken sharp aim at the ABA, with top Justice Department officials accusing the group of bias and blocking employees from attending its events.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in an April memo that the ABA was “free to litigate in support of activist causes.” But, he said, Justice Department employees acting in an official capacity were no longer allowed to attend or speak at the group’s events, and the agency would not use taxpayer dollars to pay for anyone to travel to them.
Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to the ABA that the administration would not help the group vet judicial nominees.
The ABA has long evaluated federal judicial nominees appointed by presidents of both parties, conducting interviews and reviewing their legal writing before rating their qualifications. This assessment, the ABA notes, is “strictly advisory,” and senators and the White House are free to ignore it.
Bondi called the ABA an “activist” group and said it “no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees’ qualifications,” accusing the organization of being biased toward picks from Democratic administrations. She said judicial nominees would not respond to the ABA’s questionnaires or give them interviews.
Click on the link for the full article